What could you buy if you could skip ticketing fees over a decade?

Concert tickets can be expensive, and it’s hard to figure out where all that money is going. However… if it’s your favorite artist, and it’s only a little out of your price range, isn’t that worth splurging on? It’s painful for your bank account, but at least you see it coming. What really hurts is what comes when you least expect it. Ticketing fees.

Ticketing fees snag your hopes and dreams away from you, right when you think you’ve gotten tickets for a decently cheap cost. Ticketing fees are how a lot of third-party websites and companies make their money, since they don’t get a cut of the original pricing.

Ticketing fees range between a flat fee and 2.5% of the ticket price all the way up to an exorbitant 15%. So let’s take a moment to appreciate how much money you’ve spent on ticket fees over the years, and what that could have bought you. We’ll assume an average ticket price of around $40.

The concert newbie

Say you go to one concert, every year, for a decade.

0.15 x $40 x 10 years = $60 spent on ticketing fees

You could buy an entire other concert ticket (including fees!) for that price. Conversely, you could also buy around 360 bananas based on the current market price of a banana. Damn.

The once in a blue moon attendee

Say you go to four concerts a year, every year, for a decade.

0.15 x 4 a year x $40 x 10 years = $240 spent on ticketing fees

Well, that’s about six concerts you could have gone to, if ticketing fees didn’t exist. It’s also over a thousand bananas. I’ve committed to this unit of measurement and am not going to stop.

The partier

If you go to one concert a month, every year, for a decade, you’re my idol, and you’re blowing money on ticketing fees.

0.15 x 12 a year x $40 x 10 years = $720 spent on ticketing fees

That’s over 4,000 bananas you’re missing out on. Think of the potassium! You could be so strong!

The concert addict

If you go to one concert a week, every year, for a decade, you should stop reading now for sanity’s sake. For everyone else, please look at how much money they’ve spent.